$ jlc (10,317)

I need to get back to reading more new stuff - I am currently re-reading a series I liked.

As I have recently learned, "Indie" apparently means 'an Independent movie' - one that is not filmed or distributed via the big studios. Wm has written a terrific script about a nuclear threat at the Port of LA, and we are going to try to film it. I am learning a lot more about the Film Industry than I ever really intended to, but it is fun.

The movie is basically about free will.

Jan

We discussed a similar topic some months ago, sparked by the escape of a king cobra in Florida. I think that Technocracy's answer is along the lines I am thinking: There is no prohibition of the ability to own something, but there are qualifications on the facilities you must have in order to possess something classed as dangerous. So if a college has to have a Biosafety level 4 laboratory facility in order to work with Yersinia pestis, then a private citizen who has a BSL-4 lab can also play with bubonic plague. (This goes for cobras and nukes too.)

Jan

We are in the first steps of starting an Indie movie, and going through some of the same process on the script.

Jan

"...with great chagrin..."???

Interesting indeed.

Jan

No prob. Read it as conversation, not criticism.

Jan, not renown for being thin skinned

OH MY. YOU ARE SO RIGHT!

I have now reversed my entire opinion of the movie. Since it lacked that line, it is now terrible!

Jan, now completely downcast

No can do. My computer (which I take home) is a laptop; I am increasingly using the kindle to read. I am doomed!

Jan

"NASA's primary mission being changed to Muslim outreach."

What an incredibly painful farce that was. How could anyone have made that mission statement with a straight face...though I am not sure if laughing or crying would have been more appropriate.

Jan

I posted this on a prior thread...I hope you do not mind my re-posting here. I really liked the movie, though I had to take the astrophysics on faith.

Uh - Warning: contains spoilers!

repost:
Wm and Ellen and I went to see The Martian yesterday evening. One of the things that is clear, upon reflecting upon movie, is the degree to which it is completely natural that geek culture owns all of the major characters. The single representative of ‘normals’ amongst the main cast is Annie Montrose, the NASA PR guru. In the same way that most shows now include a ‘token geek’ to act as a foil for the plot and represent how ‘out of it’ geeks are, Annie is the ‘token normal’ and holds the reverse role: she shows how lost most people would be amongst the brilliant eclectic geeks around her. The most wonderful scene that illustrates this was when the Council of Elrond was called, in the NASA Director’s office, and the Armani-clad Teddy Sanders, Director of NASA, immediately chimes in, "If this is the Council of Elrond, I want to be Glorfindel."; Annie Montrose is vastly puzzled but everyone else is quite comfortable with the metaphor.

The NASA Director was also played in a much more sympathetic fashion that in the book. I did miss the line (after Mitch Henderson, the Mission Commander, calls Teddy Sanders a coward for NAKing the Rich Purnell maneuver) where Teddy turns to Annie for moral support and (in the book) Annie says that she wished that Mitch had punched the Director out instead of just calling him the coward he is. (That was not in the movie; sigh.)

There was an interesting thread, also in the book but not so clear there as in the movie, of the scientists of the world being a subculture that transcended national boundaries. This is actually true, I think, but not often portrayed in such a subtle manner (true of music too).

While The Martian is quite reminiscent of the SF that we read as kids, where people go out into space and have wonderful adventures solving complex and dangerous problems, it is also a thoroughly modern movie. The distribution of race and gender is across the board in all roles, and the fact that a clueless Rastafarian astrophysicist is hailed as “a steely-eyed rocketman” by the Hermes crew is a good example of how careless of race and gender the plot is. (Even better, there is never an explanation for that message – because ‘of course you understand it’.) I was talking with a colleague at work a week or so ago, and we both had to adjust our identities to reading SF when we were young because there were no female (me) lead characters or black (him) lead characters in the books. This is SO not true for this movie! And it is not PC tokenism – these people obviously belong in the roles they inhabit.

It is important, crucially so, that you understand that there is NO Villain in this movie. Like the old SF novels, there is no one, twirling a waxed mustache, whom you must overcome as a plot element: it is an adventure of the spirit, and a triumph of intellect over the uncaring intransigence of the universe.

There needs to be a lot more movies like The Martian.

Jan

It is a big decision, and the possible consequences if one is wrong are enormous.

I think that, at the root, I am aware that I am a Very Lazy Person and that I am saved from degenerate indolence by having to earn a living and by being easily fascinated by so many things. The world is a wonderful place and it has an endless supply of things to learn...but still: would I ever get off the couch and stop reading if I did not have to go to work 5 days a week? I don't absolutely know; I fear that I would not.

Jan

I agree.

Jan

You are fortunate, johnpe. I have seen many people retire and fall quickly into senescence. It was very depressing to watch. I fear that I would not do well without work to apply a structure to my life...and since I enjoy my work, there would be no point to retiring.

Jan

Thank you. Doesn't Obamacare include dental insurance? Or is that only medical coverage and not dental care?

It is good to know that the price of Novocain has not increased. This is not something that I would like to contemplate doing without!

Jan

I have some strong opinions on this topic: When I was young, I watched my parents 'legislate' themselves into old age, "I can't do that anymore. I am too old."

The 'that' to which they were referring was something like 'playing tennis' or 'camping'. They were in their 50's at the time - and could definitely have done these things. But they knew that they were supposed to be in a pigeonhole of 'age' and so they conformed to the expected standards...and became old before they needed to be.

I was late-born, and watched this as I grew up: I resolved not to do this as I got older. Now, I am 62, and I watch the people around me at work. I hear them talk about their parents who are old and can't take care of themselves any more. These people are OLD!...and some of them are younger than I am in years (the rest are about 5 years older).

I regularly do two martial arts and I am learning how to joust. I camp by myself in the wilderness (OK, OK...I have 300lbs of German Shepherd dogs as excellent company and general deterrent). I would like to go on an archaeological dig in the Eastern Mediterranean (trying to figure out how to do that in combination with work). I have no plans on retiring.

Stop telling yourself that you are Old. Why? Because it works when you do, and you don't really want that, do you?

Jan

How is this effecting dentistry? Is your ability to work being altered by drug prices and/or availability.

Jan

I think that a clear distinction should be made between paying for innovation and paying for bureaucracy. A current example is colchicine to treat gout. This medication had been in use for centuries, perhaps millennia (since 1500 BC), and its cost was minimal. The FDA decided that it needed to pass FDA standards (which project costs millions of dollars) and they awarded the right to market post-FDA-approval colchicine to the company that invested in the bureaucracy of the approval mechanism. Per Wikipedia:

"Oral colchicine had been used for many years as an unapproved drug with no prescribing information, dosage recommendations, or drug interaction warnings approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).[21] On July 30, 2009 the FDA approved colchicine as a monotherapy for the treatment of three different indications (familial Mediterranean fever, acute gout flares, and for the prophylaxis of gout flares,... and gave URL Pharma a three-year marketing exclusivity agreement[... in exchange for URL Pharma doing 17 new studies and investing $100 million into the product, of which $45 million went to the FDA for the application fee. URL Pharma raised the price from $0.09 per tablet to $4.85, and the FDA removed the older unapproved colchicine from the market in October 2010, ..."

If you take into account the cost of FDA approval, the drug market looks a lot different.

Jan

Excellent point! I shall remember to use that example.

Jan

Ha! I had to look that up: Mafunsalo - a disease caused by a severe lack of money.

Jan

This is a dream. It is a Good dream.

Jan, bravo him!

"Cooking? With Methane?" she asks (innocent look; big brown eyes)...

Jan

We don't even have the concept that the gov is on 'our' side any more. They are our opponents in the game, and they can make or change the rules at any time.

We loose!

Jan

That's a Long List, johnpe! We who lease our land from the government (and they call it property taxes) understand this well.

Jan

Well,...I could...but I am fond of London broil and chicken with garlic, olive oil, and white wine. Maybe we had better just 'start cooking', MichaelA!

Jan, solves all problems

CO3 is not dangerous...it is just CO2. As with any substance, it has to be handled with knowledge of its nature. CO2 is an aerial 'fertilizer' that is promoting increased growth of plant life around the world. If you get too much of it, it can be bad for a planet but it takes a LOT to get to that point. CO2 has been as high as 7000 ppm and as low as 180 ppm in Earth's history; right now it is about at 400 ppm.

The temperature has not become warmer for about 20 years now. Also, man's contribution to the overall amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is small - less than 1%.

Jan

Yes, but they do seem to be going to town.

"... over 200 oil rigs running and more than 2100 wells being drilled per year, North Dakota is poised to take over Alaska as the second largest oil producing state in the country."

I don't know much about the petroleum industry, Salty, but even within the constraints they are dealing with, they are making a difference in oil production.

Jan